Letter From the Editor (3-30-12)
IN VINO VERITAS Eight months out of college and three months out of the closet, I stood in the aisle of a liquor store in Greenwich Village eyeballing a bottle of Columbia Crest Merlot. This was in...
View ArticleToy Soiree
Bonding over bondage gear, dishing about dildos, coming together to discuss … coming together. Shopping for sex toys can be a wonderfully affirming experience when undertaken with a group of trusted...
View ArticleQ&A with Senator Ed Murray
Sen. Ed Murray lives in Seattle with his partner of 20 years, Michael Shiosaki, and has spent 17 years expanding LGBT rights while representing the 43rd District in the Washington State Legislature....
View ArticleCinéma Very Gay
Seattle’s now-beloved Three Dollar Bill Cinema (TDBC) formed in September 1995 with limited resources but an ambitious mission: to provide access to queer cinema, a forum for the exchange of ideas, and...
View ArticleThe Bard of Ashland
Charming Ashland has plenty going for it. Its urbane restaurants, indie shops, and historic hotels set in beautifully preserved gold rush–era buildings hug the lower slopes of southern Oregon’s...
View ArticleFlying High
It’s a big year for one of North America’s great architectural icons, Seattle’s delightfully Jetsons-esque Space Needle (400 Broad St.), which opened in April 1962 to usher in the Seattle World’s Fair....
View ArticleIn Brief
“The perfect pair of underwear will change your life.” A lofty claim, perhaps, but one that Nick Cruz stands firmly behind—as it were. Cruz knows his knickers. He’s general manager of Portland’s...
View ArticleHey Eugene!
Let’s not take anything away from the Ducks. Donning green-and-yellow face paint and rooting for the University of Oregon’s recently successful sports teams is still a major incentive for visiting...
View ArticleMarket Fresh
There’s no better way to savor regional flavors—and meet like-minded locavores—than to peruse the stalls of local farmers markets. These bustling agoras thrive most of the year, even in many small...
View ArticleSocial Hour
Editor’s Note: The Social closed in March 2013 after a very rock run. As of this writing, it wasn’t clear what sort of business would go into this space. Seattle’s already vibrant Capitol Hill...
View ArticleUnited States of Terra
The much-anticipated latest creation of “earth-to-plate” proponent Tamara Murphy, often named among the most celebrated lesbian chefs in the country, Terra Plata (1501 Melrose Ave., 206-325-1501, $$$)...
View ArticleCoffee Counter Culture
In java-centric Seattle, it’s no shocker that much of the gay social scene in Capitol Hill revolves around cafés, including some standouts in artisan roasting. Using a 1930s cast-metal roaster, Caffé...
View ArticleCocktail Mixers
Saunter into just about any bar in such scene-y East Side neighborhoods as Alberta, Mississippi, Belmont, Hawthorne, Clinton/Division, or Central Eastside, and you’ll likely bump into one or two—and...
View ArticleOut at the Inn
In the mostly residential blocks of the West End between Davie and Robson streets, quite a few Victorian and Edwardian mansions have evaded the wrecking ball (the majority have not), and a number of...
View ArticleQueer & Now
Opened to much fanfare in spring 2011, downtown Portland’s Crystal Hotel (302 SW 12th Ave.; 503-972-2670) is a shining star in the Northwest-based McMenamins chain of brew-friendly boutique hotels and...
View ArticleStanley’s Secrets
What happens when a village full of gays exists beside one of the world’s most amazing city parks? Your mind doesn’t have to wander far—and when you visit Vancouver’s famous Stanley Park, your feet...
View ArticleSip & Swirl
You’re driving along I-84, which begins to hug the Columbia River just east of Portland, and right around mile marker 60, shortly before you reach the dapper town of Hood River, the full wonder of the...
View ArticleA Tale of Two Islands
Salt Spring Island Originally inhabited by aboriginal Salishan peoples, 70-square-mile Salt Spring Island has been a haven of counterculture since the earliest pioneers began showing up in the late...
View ArticleCome Out and Play
The story of Nirvana’s redefinition of popular music in the early ’90s has been shared many times over. Less frequently told, yet no less groundbreaking, was the iconic Seattle-based band’s overt...
View ArticleWhistler Wonderland
As you leave temperate Vancouver’s forest of shimmering skyscrapers and drive north along the scenic Sea to Sky Highway, it’s a little hard to believe that North America’s largest ski area, Whistler...
View ArticleWinter Games
Each year, lesbian and gay skiers and boarders join a loooong rainbow flag as it snakes its way down Whistler Mountain—an alpine Pride parade of sorts. Nonskiers and nonboarders join in when the flag...
View ArticleThe Ballard of East and West
A traditionally Scandinavian neighborhood with close ties to Seattle’s fishing industry, Ballard has transitioned in the past decade into one of the city’s hippest neighborhoods while still retaining...
View ArticleGearing up for Whistler WinterPRIDE and Gay Ski Week
Pride celebrations in the Northwest, as with most parts of North America, take place chiefly in the summertime, but there’s one major exception to this rule: Whistler WinterPRIDE, which Vancouver-based...
View ArticleWeekend Hideaways
Tacoma, Washington Hot Piece of Glass In recent years, the port city of Tacoma has refashioned itself into one of the nation’s premier destinations for art glass. With a population of 200,000,...
View ArticleGossip Curl
What is curling—a sport that entails throwing stones, sweeping the ice with brooms, and yelling at teammates—really all about? Teamwork, says Pacific Rim Curling League (PRCL) member Jodi Miller. “You...
View ArticleRSVP Vacations Sets Sail From Seattle to Alaska in Summer 2013
The venerable GLBT tour operator RSVP has announced a gay Alaska cruise for summer 2013 aboard Holland America’s Oosterdam. The ship departs from Seattle on July 21, cruising through Puget Sound,...
View ArticleFour Nights at the Opera
The Ring of the Nibelung, Richard Wagner’s sweeping saga of gods, giants, dwarves, river-nymphs, tragic humans, and the end of the world, returns to Seattle Opera next summer in director Stephen...
View ArticleA Red Hot Dress Mess
Does Portland’s Red Dress Party deserve its reputation as one of the City of Roses’ most notorious dance parties? You bet! The Red Dress Party (reddresspdx.com) started out small. In fact, it was so...
View ArticleIs Tacoma Really America’s Gayest City?
According to The Advocate magazine, Tacoma isn’t just kinda gay. It’s not merely a little lesbian-ish. No, Washington’s third-largest city is full-on fabulous, beaming with pride – the No. 1 gayest...
View ArticleCarter Sickels
It’s been a busy year for Portland author Carter Sickels, who in January 2012 came out with his acclaimed first novel, The Evening Hour (Bloomsbury), just as he began coming out as a trans gay man....
View ArticleHigh Spirits
So your haricots verts were grown locally, your quinoa genetically unmodified, and your grass-fed steak lovingly raised on the open range. You’re doing great. But what about that vodka of dubious...
View ArticleWhere the Far East Is Always Near
Rest assured that in virtually any Portland neighborhood, you’re within walking distance of artfully crafted Asian fare and cocktails. Just across the river from downtown, cavernous yet curiously cozy...
View ArticleSpring Getaways: Tofino, BC to Astoria, OR
In our Weekend Hideaways feature from a few months ago, we tried to come up with six destinations and plans around the Northwest that would be fun in winter – hence storm-watching on Vancouver Island...
View ArticleEscape Plan
It’s a good omen when your guide from EverGreen Escapes (866-203-7603, evergreenescapes.com)—they refer to themselves as “escape artists”—pulls up in one of the company’s snazzy Mercedes vans. The...
View ArticleKings and Queens
Straddling southeast downtown and southwest Strathcona, the Cobalt (917 Main St., 778-918-3671) is a former den of punk-rock abandon that’s been spruced up of late just enough to make it nice—but...
View ArticlePreviewing Portland’s QDoc (May 16-20) and the Vancouver Queer Film Festival...
The Pacific Northwest has a number of prestigious, well-attended film festivals throughout the year, including several that are produced by and for the LGBT community. One of the most distinctive of...
View ArticleLGBT Visitor Center Launches in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Neighborhood
Our summer-fall issue of OutCity has launched, with a number of new features about visiting the Pacific Northwest (we’ll be posting these stories here on the website over the coming weeks, so check...
View ArticleSwim Team: Seattle Hosts 2013 International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics...
A city with a strong tradition of LGBT athletics, Seattle is welcoming more than 550 swimmers next week for the annual 2013 International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics (IGLA) championships, which takes...
View ArticleWhistler Welcomes Cornucopia, Gears up for Ski Season
Fans of the ruggedly beautiful town of Whistler are already dreaming about snowfall – this upscale resort less than two hours’ drive north of Vancouver launches its busy ski and snowboard season around...
View ArticlePortland’s new Union Way Opens on site of Former Gay Nightclub
Portland’s long-running gay nightspot, Red Cap Garage, closed more than a year ago. It was a slightly odd ending, as Red Cap was connected by a hallway to another popular gay club, Boxxes—the two clubs...
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